Saturday, November 6, 2010

it's trailer mix's one week anniversary, and i'm still blogging--which (for me) is cause for celebration. so here are a few more of my all-time fave trailers. please feel free to chime in with yours in the comments section.

laugh-out-loud funny

one of the most engaging and original trailers i've seen in recent years is the one for In Bruges. this piece does a great job conveying the film's tone and dark sense of humor, and it's got some of the best motion graphics i've seen. but really, i just love it because i laugh out loud every single time i watch it.

in a previous post i talked about the use of copy/VO in trailers. this spot uses cards, and here they work really well laying out the story. (sidenote: cards/VO usually fare better in comedy trailers because they help set up jokes.) oh, and if you can find it, check out the redband version of this trailer, which is also great.

quietly brilliant

the first trailer for Benjamin Button is a really beautiful, moving, epic piece. i love that there's only two moments of dialogue in the entire spot: the first is at the top, to set up the premise, which is simply (paraphrasing)--my name is Benjamin Button and i age backwards. you don't need to know anything else to understand this story.

the music is perfect and the visuals are stunning. we're basically watching a life unfold in reverse, a countdown of sorts, and it doesn't need any more explanation than that. the entire time, the spot is building to just one moment: the scene when Benjamin walks into Daisy's ballet studio, and he doesn't look a day older than eighteen. (that always gives me chills.)

and that's why it's the perfect place for the final lines of dialogue: Daisy tells Benjamin, "You're so young." and it's exactly what we (the audience) are feeling. and his response--"Only on the outside"--sums up everything we've been seeing for the past minute and a half. an entire life, fully lived, but backwards.

the horror, the horror

i'm not a big fan of horror flicks--but i'm brave enough to watch the trailers. and the spot for Last House on the Left (a film i'm way too cowardly to see) is really good and super memorable because of how different it is, primarily because of the final song. the last cue is so wonderfully unexpected, and the juxtaposition of an almost lullaby-like version of "Sweet Child of Mine" with the terrifying visuals in the montage is both risky and brilliant.

and just for kicks, here's the trailer for the original Last House on the Left film from 1972. enjoy!

...i'd say trailers have come a pretty long way the past few decades! now repeat after me, "it's only a trailer...only a trailer...only a trailer..."